Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria"
Text: Isaiah 36:8
THE RABSHAKEH’S PSYCHOLOGICAL WARGAME
The Rabshakeh was obviously a skilled military commander. He sought to undermine the confidence of Judah.
“But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’
is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away,
and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?
Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria,
and I will give you two thousand horses—|
if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants,
and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? |
Have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it?
The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.'”
Isaiah 36:7-10
1. Undermining confidence in the LORD.
a) The Rabshakeh was well-informed.
b) He was aware of Hezekiah’s religious reforms.
i) The high places where idols were worshipped were removed.
ii) Only the Altar in the Temple at Jerusalem was the only place of worship.
c) He was saying that now Judah had lost the support of all the deities the nation could have had, if Hezekiah had not removed the high places.
d) The Rabshakeh’s understanding of Judah’s religion of faith in God was wrong in this regard.
e) Judah did not need the supposed help from the false deities!
2. Encouraging Judah to surrender to Assyria.
a) He urged the King and the people to surrender.
b) He would reward them with 2000 horses.
c) He went on to mock them about not having enough riders to use the horses.
3. Undermining Judah’s trust in its military might.
a) He sneered at the military might of Judah.
b) He doubted that Judah could even repel one of their captains in the battlefield.
4. Undermining Judah’s reliance on Egypt.
a) This was brought up once again.
b) Egypt may have chariots and horsemen but they cannot be relied upon.
5. A bold claim that the LORD had sent him.
a) He claimed that the LORD had spoken to him.
b) And that God had sent him to destroy Judah.